Posts Tagged ‘European Union’

Israel would have released Hamas prisoners in exchange for a demilitarized Gaza, sources say, but the terror group did not agree. Moreover, Hamas said it plans to resume fighting promptly at 8 am Friday, when the 72-hour cease fire runs out.

So Israel is now asking Germany and the EU to help with administration over Gaza to prevent future security problems.

Egyptian sources who spoke to the Hebrew-language Yediot Aharanot newspaper say that during cease fire talks in Cairo, Israeli negotiators agreed to release Hamas prisoners in exchange for demilitarizing Gaza.

The Israelis also considered the possibility of building a small airport and seaport in Gaza, but did not make a final decision on the issue. The sources said Israel refused to back down from the issue of demilitarizing Gaza, however, though the Jewish State was willing to also lift the blockade and expand the fishing zone.

In fact, Israel was willing to be flexible on nearly all the demands put forth by the Palestinian Arab factions – but not on the issue of disarming Gaza, the sources said.

Israel is now calling on the European Union to step in and take an active role in dealing with the thorny issue of how to monitor the security issues from Gaza.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told the German newspaper Bild in an interview published Thursday that inspectors from the EU and Germany should be sent to “monitor the Palestinians’ trade with neighboring countries… The EU already did that once at a crossing in Rafah in southern Gaza,” Liberman reminded.

The foreign minister added that Israel does not want to have to deal with administering Gaza after withdrawing its troops and communities from the region in 2005, but said a reasonable solution for Gaza residents must be found. He called on Germany to take a leading role in finding a viable resolution to the problem.

Until Hamas seized control over Gaza in 2007, the “EUBAM” program was started by the EU following Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. EUBAM assigned 70 European observers as monitors over movement of human, material and vehicular traffic at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the entire discussion may be academic for the time being: Hamas rejected the extension of the current 72-hour cease fire beyond Friday at 8 am.

The European Union “warmly” welcomed the announcement of the 72 hour humanitarian cease fire in Gaza,” according to a statement issued Tuesday from the office of the High Representative.

The statement called on “all parties to respect its terms,” adding, “There must be an immediate end to the loss of civilian lives. The firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip must stop. We commend all efforts, particularly those of Egypt, to broker this deal and hope that this can be extended into a lasting cease fire.

“We call on the parties not to miss this opportunity.

“We reiterate that the European Union stands ready to contribute to a comprehensive and sustainable solution meeting the legitimate security, humanitarian and socioeconomic needs of the Israeli and Palestinian people,” the statement concluded.

Residents of the Eshkol Regional Council headed again for their bomb shelters this morning.

A single Qassam rocket was fired shortly after 9:15 a.m. from Gaza, which is now part of the newly-unified Palestinian Authority “unity government” bonding the region’s former Hamas terrorist rulers together with the Ramallah-based Fatah faction led by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The missile landed in an open field near the entrance of a kibbutz near Israel’s southern border, the 0404 website reported.

No one was injured and there was no damage, according to officials at the site.

The Color Red rocket alert siren blared throughout the region at about 9:15 a.m. local time, sending residents in the area racing for their safe spaces.

Because the region is located so close to the border with Gaza, most public buildings, including schools, are protected with anti-rocket armored roofing. Those in private homes, stores and malls, however, still must reach safety within 15 seconds before the rocket or missile or mortar explodes in their area.

The question now is, will the unification of Fatah — whose paramilitary forces were armed, equipped and trained by the U.S. military forces in Jordanian training camps over the past several years — bring even more firepower to Gaza, already generously funded and armed to the teeth by Iran?

How does Israel respond to today’s attack, given the delicate diplomatic dance involved with the current, ah… shall we say, ‘discussions’ … going on between Jerusalem, Washington and Brussels over the new reality in the Palestinian Authority?

A PA delegation from Ramallah was in Washington two days ago, in fact, to shmooze with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The United States and the European Union are strongly supporting the new PA Unity Government (PUG), because it ostensibly is comprised of ministers with “independent” status, allegedly unaffiliated with any terrorist group. Nevertheless, five Hamas-backed lawmakers were sworn into their new office from Gaza through a video hookup last week, and the new government allegedly now administers Gaza as well as PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.

Although PA leader Abbas insisted the new entity would continue to “work towards peace,” this morning’s attack makes clear that last week’s statement by his coalition partners (Hamas and allied terror group Islamic Jihad) — that they intend to continue the fight to annihilate Israel — has more credibility.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed European Union support for the Palestinian Authority unity deal between Fatah and the Hamas terror organization on Monday.

Netanyahu pointed out the bizarre inconsistency between the European position on the PA reconciliation deal that is allegedly to result in a unity government between the Fatah and Hamas terror faction – and its clear condemnation of the recent deadly terror attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels.

He told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday he finds it “strange that European governments who strongly condemn the shooting attacks in Brussels, at the same time speak kindly of the unity agreement with Hamas, a terrorist organization that carries out and praises such attacks.”

The prime minister pointed out that the attack which took the lives of four people little more than a week ago was a sign that radical Islamic terrorism is “rearing its head in Europe.”

Leftist Meretz leader MK Zehava Gal-On, however, claimed “The unity between Hamas and Fatah is essential.” She contended the deal would transform PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas “into the president of all Palestinians . . . on the condition that the new government will recognize the State of Israel, recognize previous agreements and stop violence and terrorism.”

Since the Hamas charter is entirely based on its vow to erase the State of Israel and banish every Israeli Jew from the Land through violent “resistance,” it is not clear why Gal-On should believe unity with Hamas would facilitate peace.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman rebuked the U.S. and Europe after their calls for a “thorough” investigation of the deaths of two Palestinian Authority Arabs in Nakba Day riots last week.

The two Arab teens were killed on May 15, allegedly by IDF soldiers, during violence outside the Ofer Prison, located next to the PA capital of Ramallah in Samaria.

“”We don’t need an American request to investigate the subject,” Liberman told reporters Wednesday while visiting Samaria’s Ariel University. “I reject any request and the hypocrisy we see worldwide.”

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki called for a “prompt and transparent” investigation in response to a reporter’s question during a briefing on Capitol Hill.

European Union missions in the Palestinian Authority capital of Ramallah and in Jerusalem made similar statements. “We reiterate the need for security forces, whether Israeli or Palestinian, to refrain from the use of lethal force, except in cases where there is a real and imminent threat to life,” they said.

In response, Liberman pointed out that the Israeli army is the “most moral” military force in the world.

“I am saddened these demands don’t come up in other cases,” he commented. “In Syria around 170,000 people have been killed and I didn’t see any act or request from the international community to investigate those murders. Hamas executed two men in Gaza after accusing them of spying for Israel, both without a lawyer or fair trial. I didn’t see any request to investigate that [either],” he added.

As Liberman has pointed out, the video footage that has made the rounds was posted after several days and may have been edited, as such videos often are. Leftists groups with an agenda hoping to incriminate Israel often show only part of an incident, or judiciously edit the footage to falsify the information altogether, as in the Al Dura case.

At the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, one must ask the question:

Why were these two young men there in the first place, during a violent Nakba Day riot at Ofer Prison?

European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has announced she will end her term at the end of December this year.

In a speech earlier this week, Ashton — who often has faced a flood of negative press for her actions — appeared to express relief that her time in office at the EU was over at last.

In sharing the news at a meeting of the German Marshall Fund earlier this week, Ashton remarked, “you lay the foundations but there are people who can do things with this that probably I couldn’t do, so it will be good to hand it over.”

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who has led the European Council since November 2009, also said he would step down. Van Rompuy said he would retire from politics.

Ashton’s place in history will be marked by her founding the anti-Israel European External Action Service (EEAS), a body the Lisbon Treaty allegedly ensures is independent from other institutions. However, it is headed by the European Commission vice president, which calls into question the entity’s autonomous status.

European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor has called on the European Union to ignore the upcoming Palestinian Authority unity government.

Speaking at an executive EJC meeting in Jerusalem with top Israeli government officials, Dr. Kantor pointed out that EU leaders had yet to condemn the agreement signed Wednesday between the Fatah and Hamas factions.

“The Europeans have yet to condemn the signing of this unity agreement,” Kantor said. “We hear immediate condemnation every time some houses are built over the Green Line, but Brussels is silent on the Palestinian Authority’s new alliance with Hamas, a group whose charter openly aspires to the genocide of world Jewry.

“The Palestinians ignored their obligations and unilaterally applied to UN organizations, threatened to disband the PA and have now chosen to deal with the manufacturers of terror rather than the purveyors of peace,” he said. “It is perhaps time for the European Union to finally realize that they were applying pressure on the wrong side,” he added.

Dr. Kantor noted that European Jews are constantly hearing that Israel’s relations with Europe are “contingent on the peace process.” He commented that Europe should be able to “separate its excellent trade, economic relations and scientific and hi-tech cooperation with Israel from the conflict.”

The EJC delegation included members of Jewish communities from the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, and Greece, among others.